16 - 17 February: Ships Ahoy!

We were gentle with ourselves today, despite leaving the wedding party early last night.

I slipped out early to walk to Kings Cross, where I met Linda for brunch. We have a “regular” place on Granary Square where we have met (off and on) for years. It was completely slammed, (school holidays and the place next door was shut). Service was, therefore, comically poor. They wedged us in comfortably enough. Linda and I speak pretty much weekly, so a “catch up” isn’t really required. It was/is a treat to meet in person – we only get that, at most, once a year.

Carey joined us early afternoon. We had thought to go to the British Museum. A combination of suddenly colder, wetter weather and a long queue at the Montague Place entrance, led us to conclude that a cosy afternoon on the sofa would be best.

Today, we laced up our shoes and walked to Greenwich. It was just over a 14km round trip, despite a sneaky few stops on the DLR on the back towards the city. That’s hardly a Camino day, but a decent workout, and our first serious endeavour since landing last week. It may only be February (and a cold winter, by UK standards), but the daffodils are sprouted. Crocuses and snowdrops are flowering in the parks. Today was bright, but also brisk. We were in hats, gloves. The blustery wind off the Thames was bracing. It was the sort of day that allows families to get their children, (currently on half-term), out of the house, albeit in padded onsies and idiot-stringed mittens. The parks, including Greenwich, were full of toddlers with cold-looking parents and packs of chilly teens.

We toured the Royal Observatory, enjoying the fantastic views from the terrace of Flamsteed House. We learned that the red “Time ball” on top was dropped every day at 1pm, so the navigators in the docks below could calibrate their chronographs before setting sail. We marveled at the splendidly (and aptly) named “Great Equatorial Telescope”, after which, vertigo forced me to come down the see-through, fretted iron-work staircase on my behind. Carey took video – but in, what he insisted was a loving way.

We hopped from Western to Eastern Hemispheres, and back again, (inevitably, and more than a few times), across the Prime (Airy) Meridian, which is actually 5 seconds of arc West, but that’s pretty good for 1851! The true Meridian is about 100m away, a little downhill from the carpark. We went and jumped over that a few times too, of course.

We made our way home via the Cutty Sark – once the world’s fastest ship. Admiring her, I noticed a plastic figure on one of its yards. Carey mentioned there was someone in the rigging. I said “yes, an illustrative crew member.” Carey, however, insisted that his figure had moved. We were both briefly very confused. In fact, there were 3 figures in the rigging: 1 plastic guy, and 2 real humans doing repairs.